Chapter 21

The Struggle for Civil Rights

PLESSY vs. FERGUSON- 1896

• Supreme Court ruled that segregation was not Unconstitutional.

• Created Separate but Equal

1.What court case confirmed the legality of racial segregation?

• “Separate But Equal Doctrine”– Made African-Americans 2nd class citizens– Etiquette of proper race relations developed

• Had to address whites as Mr. and Mrs. • Blacks addressed as “boy” and “girl”• Black couldn’t challenge whites• Overturned by the Brown Vs. Board of

Education court case

2. What court case overturned the “Separate but Equal Doctrine?”

Brown v. Board of Education May 17, 1954• Thurgood Marshall was the NAACP lawyer who

brought the case before the Supreme Court• The Supreme Court reversed the Plessy v. Ferguson

decision of “Separate but Equal”• Court stated that Segregated schools were found to

be inferior because it stigmatized African-Americans• South refused to integrate.

3. Who argued the Brown Vs. Board case to the Supreme Court?

• Emmett Till –August 1955– Visiting relatives in Mississippi from Chicago– Whistled at a white woman – Was found beaten and thrown in the river by her husband and

a friend.– Funeral was televised- brought national attention to racial

discrimination in the South– At the trial an all white jury found the two men not guilty

• The freedoms in the North for African Americans did not extend into the South.

4. How did Emmett Till Bring national attention to racial discrimination in the South?

• Montgomery, Alabama- December 1955– Rosa Parks- refuses to give up her seat to a white

person– Montgomery Improvement Association began

• Selected Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as President • Advocated non-violent philosophy (Passive resistance)• NAACP boycott the buses in Montgomery AL.

5. What event helped spark the Montgomery bus boycott?

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)-1957

• President Martin Luther King Jr.• Believed the path to equal rights was to carry on

nonviolent protests against the evils of second class citizenship

• Staged protests and demonstrations throughout the South.

6. Who felt the path to equal rights was nonviolent protests?

Little Rock High School-September 1957• Governor of Arkansas used National Guard to prevent 9

black students from enrolling in Little Rock’s Central High School

• Eisenhower placed National Guard under federal control and sent the soldiers to Little Rock to allow the 9 students to attend

7. Which president ordered soldiers to protect black students integrating Little Rock H.S

The Little Rock Nine

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)• Greensboro, North Carolina- February 1960

African American students sat at the whites only lunch counter in Woolworths

• Television crews televised the event showing the students being beaten, jeered at and having food poured on them

• New way to protest- “sit-in” • Students from all over the south began copying this technique.

8. What is a sit- in?

Freedom Riders-May 1961•Historic bus ride by African Americans across the South to test the Supreme Court decision banning segregation on interstate bus routes and terminals

•Riders were beaten by whites waiting for them as they pulled into each terminal

•Newspapers throughout the nation denounced the beatings and riders wanted to test the Supreme Court decision to outlaw segregation on interstate bus routes.

•It was exactly the response the Freedom Riders wanted

9. What was the goal of the freedom riders?

The Desegregation of Birmingham Alabama-1963• The Most segregated City in America• MLK and the SCLC came to demonstrate• Friday April 12th, King and others were arrested• May 2nd, thousands of teens came to march on Birmingham• Police used fire hoses, attack dogs, and clubbed and arrested 959 of the children.• The television cameras captured it all• Birmingham officials were forced to end segregation

10. What caused Birmingham Alabama to desegregate?

March on Washington- Aug. 28, 1963• 250,000 gathered at the Lincoln Memorial • Black and White marchers protested against

segregated facilities• Dr. King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream

Speech” • Two Months later Kennedy is assassinated

11. Where did Dr. King deliver his “I Have A Dream” Speech?

Civil Rights Act of 1964• Two months after Kennedy’s assassination, Johnson

pledged to carry on his work on civil rights legislation• President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed The Civil

Rights Act of 1964 through Congress• Eliminated “whites only” public facilities

12. What did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 accomplish?

Mississippi Summer Project• White volunteers came to work in Mississippi

– Presence brought national attention– 3 volunteers- 2 white, 1 black turn up missing– Were on their way to investigate a church bombing in

Mississippi

– Murdered by KKK and law enforcement personnel

13. What happened to some whites who came to Mississippi to register black voters?

Militant Black Consciousness• Malcolm X (Malcolm Little)

– Grew up in poverty– Lost hope in that he could succeed in a white society– Ended up in jail – While in jail he was exposed to the teaching of the

Nation of Islam

14. What was Malcolm X exposed to in prison that changed his life?

Militant Black Consciousness• Urged blacks to separate from white society• Wanted to use force, instead of passive resistance• 1964- Quit The Nation of Islam over differences in

strategy and doctrine and formed Organization of Afro-American Unity

• 1965- assassinated while giving a speech in New York

15. How did MLK’s philosophy differ from Malcolm X on gaining civil rights?

• Members of Nation of Islam convicted of Malcolm X’s murder

• Stokely Carmichael became impatient with non-violence and started the rise of “Black Power”

• Became the battle cry for militant civil right activists

Militant Black Consciousness

16. Name the Civil rights leader who became impatient with non-violence and called for black power.

• Black Panther Party– Goal: gain political office for African-Americans throughout

the South– Militant in demands for “land, bread, housing, education,

clothing, justice and peace”. – King very critical of black militant groups- thought it

weakened support of Whites

Militant Black Consciousness

17. Why was MLK against The Black Panther Party?

Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated • April 4, 1968- assassinated in

Memphis• Led to a new wave of urban

violence and worst rioting in history

• Poverty still remained high among African-Americans even though segregation had ended.

18. What happened after MLK was assassinated?

Legacy Of The Civil Rights Movement•Created legal protection for the civil rights of all Americans

•More African Americans finishing school and going to college

•African Americans having greater pride in their racial identity

•African Americans began to appear more frequently in movies and film

•The number of African Americans in political office significantly increased